


Confirmation Bias

by reindeersidecar



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Another 2x12 fic..., F/F, Kara prepping Lena for the photoshoot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 18:38:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9779966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reindeersidecar/pseuds/reindeersidecar
Summary: “Lena,” Kara says, and she knows her mouth is still hanging open, “you’re here.”Lena is close enough now, and she smells clean, like she must have scrubbed every trace of kryptonite from her body, and she’s fresh-faced without her makeup. It frightens Kara how put-together she looks.Lena adjusts the leather handbag on her shoulder and crosses her arms, brow cocked, a curious smile. “You asked me to come.” She smooths a strand of hair down and chuckles. “Although, there were so many qualifiers in your text I think you may have uninvited me by the end of it.”





	

When Lena Luthor strides through the doors of the Catco elevator, all heads in the room turn, and there Kara Danvers is standing, jaw hanging open, half-swallowed coffee nearly pouring out of her mouth. There’s a lull in the office buzz, the sharp strike of Lena’s heels cutting through it. She walks right up to Kara, poised as ever, not a single hair misplaced, white dress perfectly pressed beneath her trenchcoat, and Kara wonders if the last 48 hours have been a dream.

“Lena,” Kara says, and she knows her mouth is still hanging open, “you’re here.”

Lena is close enough now, and she smells clean, like she must have scrubbed every trace of kryptonite from her body, and she’s fresh-faced without her makeup. It frightens Kara how put-together she looks.

Lena adjusts the leather handbag on her shoulder and crosses her arms, brow cocked, a curious smile. “You asked me to come.” She smooths a strand of hair down and chuckles. “Although, there were so many qualifiers in your text I think you may have uninvited me by the end of it.”

Kara finds herself mimicking Lena’s body language, crossing her arms as well. “Yeah, I know,” she laughs awkwardly, “I just didn’t expect you to, you know…after everything.”

“Please,” Lena says with a flick of her wrist, “I’d choose Jimmy Olsen’s camera over the paparazzi’s any day.”

Kara frowns. She hates that after all Lena has gone through she still has to deal with people heckling her on the streets. She pushes at the bridge of her glasses. “If it helps, I could walk you around until all the hype dies down.”

Lena laughs, and Kara doesn’t know why. “And give them one more thing to talk about?” She leans in conspiratorially, brow lifted. “I think not.”

Kara tries to process the subtext beyond the mischievous glint in Lena’s eye. “Why would—oh—” She blushes.

Lena laughs again, a little more freely this time. “Kara Danvers, for someone who’s made a career out of working for the media, you certainly have a flowery idea of it.”

Kara stares down at her feet. “I’ve always been a glass half-full kind of person I guess.”

“Trust me. I, more than anyone, know that.” Kara meets Lena’s brilliant eyes. “I’d never want that to change about you.” She leaves behind a starstruck Kara to shake James’s hand as he leaves his office to greet her. He says hello and apologizes for the article they ran yesterday all in one breath. Lena waves off his apology. “I know how business works, Mr. Olsen. You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”

He smiles at Kara over Lena’s shoulder and then focuses on the woman in front of him again. Kara is amazed how small Lena is standing before James. She commonly forgets the woman is actually shorter than she herself is, what with the tremendous presence she seems to command. And her three-inch heels.

Lena follows James down a hall to his studio. Kara trails behind. She has no business being on a photoshoot set, and she knows the danger’s gone, but she can’t help feeling like she still has to shadow Lena, to make sure she’s really, truly, okay.

James stops at the door of the studio and looks at her. “Kara,” he forces a laugh, “don’t you have an article to write? We’re kind of on a tight deadline.”

“Oh, I—”

Lena clutches Kara’s arm before she has the chance to retreat. “I asked her to be here.”

James’s eyes slide between the two of them. “Right.” He shrugs, shakes his head, and unlocks his studio.

Eve comes scurrying down the hall as they walk into the room. “Mr. Olsen, Natalie just called. She’s stuck in traffic. She’ll be at least another half hour.”

“Natalie?” Lena inquired, watching Eve leave.

“The makeup artist,” Kara explained with a sigh. “You don’t have to wait here, Lena. We could call you in again later—”

“You can do it.”

“What?” Kara and James say in unison.

Lena regards James with a quirk of her brow. “You’re in a rush, aren’t you, Mr. Olsen?”

“But I don’t know anything about makeup,” Kara rushes to interject. It isn’t entirely true—she does know about makeup—but she is sure Lena Luthor with her perfect shades of lipstick and the precise contours of her eyeliner would scoff at the breadth of Kara’s knowledge.

“Don’t worry,” she says over her shoulder as she follows James into the room. “I’ve been through this enough times to know what looks good on camera.” She sets her handbag down on the vanity and takes a seat in front of it. Kara stands behind her and stares at her in the mirror.

She laughs under her breath. “I can’t imagine you ever looking bad.”

Lena meets her gaze in the reflection from beneath her bold brows and the fans of lashes, and there's laughter in her eyes, a bit of mischief too, as she pinches her lip between her teeth to bite back a smile.

Kara clears her throat and moves to rifle through Natalie’s drawers for her supplies, everything meticulously organized. It makes Kara ashamed of the state of disaster that is her own vanity drawer.

“Sorry for making you do this,” Lena says suddenly, and Kara meets her eyes in the mirror again as she comes to stand behind her. “It’s just,” she pauses and huffs out a breath, “after all that manhandling, I don’t really want to be touched by strangers right now.”

“No, I get it…” Kara murmurs, running her fingers through Lena’s silky hair. “You don’t have to apologize.”

Lena’s eyes glance away, and something happens as Kara watches her. Her entire pretense crumbles right then and there.

Kara tries not to draw too much attention to it. She knows Lena hates to be seen as anything other than composed—invincible. But it’s hard to ignore the red gash hiding at her temple beneath her hair from when she’d been knocked out. The rings of bruising purples and greens at her wrists from the handcuffs. Another bruise that looks suspiciously like someone forcibly held her arm. Kara is reminded of how startlingly human Lena Luthor is.

“They hurt you,” Kara whispers, brushing Lena’s hair aside to inspect the abrasion at her temple. She saw it last night, when Supergirl laid her down in her bed. Lena had been half-conscious at that point, awake enough to give her directions to her high-rise apartment, but too hazy to hold an actual conversation.

“I’m alright, Kara,” she murmurs. And she brightens up with a half-formed smile that seems more for Kara’s sake than her own. “A little concealer will cover that right up.”

With Lena’s guidance, Kara moves like clockwork to prepare her for the photoshoot. She lays out the lipsticks on the vanity, and Lena points to a dark, rich red. “That shade will do nicely, especially against the blue dress you’ve picked out.” Blue, Kara thinks, for innocence.

“I agree,” Kara says with a smile, and she pops the cap off and twists the tube until the red tip pokes out.

Lena puckers her lips gently for her, but her straight face falters in the few seconds Kara is just _standing_ there speechless, and she breaks out into laughter. “I can do it, if you’d like,” she says between laughs.

Kara clears her throat. “No, I got it. Just close your eyes. You’re making me nervous.”

Lena raises her brows at her. “Me?” she teases.

Kara laughs. “Yes.” She tries to look stern and furrows her brow. “Now, no peeking.”

Lena straightens in her seat and makes a show of schooling her expression. She shuts her eyes and puckers her mouth once more. Kara bends down and leans in, lipstick in hand. Lena’s bottom lip gives under the soft pressure of Kara’s hand. She paints around the frame of her mouth, gentle tugging and pushing revealing pearly white teeth, and Kara can almost imagine the sensation of parting Lena’s lips with her tongue.

She’s glad Lena’s eyes are shut because her ears are on fire. She pulls at the hem of her sweater and stands up straight, twisting the lipstick back into its tube and capping it. She walks around to stand behind Lena and sets her hands on the woman’s strong shoulders. Lena cracks one green eye open before opening the other. She inspects Kara’s handiwork in the mirror and beams at what she sees. Kara is stunned by the sight of her.

“Kara Danvers, reporter, world-class friend, makeup artist.” She twirls in her seat to face Kara. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

Kara grins. “Well, I’m a terrible dancer.”

Lena leans in and shields her mouth with her hand. “Don’t worry, I am too.” She slides off the stool picking up the blue dress by its hanger from the rack of clothes and disappears behind the partition to change. James has the set prepared, lights in place, camera positioned on the tripod, and he dims the overhead.

Kara swallows thickly hearing the rustle of Lena’s clothes, the sound of fabric hitting the floor. The clack of her heels as she steps out of one dress and into another. “Kara, can you be a dear and hang this up for me?”

Her hand appears from behind the partition, her white dress on the hanger, and Kara nearly snatches it from her, afraid she’ll see too much. She deposits the hanger on the rack and scurries over to James’s side to wait for Lena.

Lena strides out with purpose. She walks out onto the lit, white backdrop of the set. Kara lingers back and watches James work his magic, and Lena fumble to work hers. Not that Lena isn’t a natural muse. Kara has thought more than once she’s wanted to paint the woman, to examine her the way an artist does, not just the way an everyday person does, or even a Kryptonian does.

But she can see things now about Lena that James is surely missing. Things such as the droop in her shoulders, the exhaustion beneath her eyes, the stiffness of her smile (which people may attribute to being characteristic of a Luthor, but Kara’s only ever seen the genuine thing).

Kara comes to stand directly beside James, right in Lena’s line of sight. The woman meets Kara’s gaze, and there’s a light suddenly in her eyes, and she looks brilliant—is brilliant. James snaps the photo, and it’s the winning shot: Lena Luthor, staring ahead at Kara, arms crossed, head raised in absolute defiance.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all so much for your comments and kudos on the last fic. I really appreciate it!


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